Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Harvesting Greens

My old blender has been getting a work out! I attended a Raw Food Yoga Retreat at Sunny Slope Farm in Alton, NH with Fae Kontje-Gibbs and Stacy Stowers. I have been harvesting the mustard greens and miners lettuce. I have been using the idea of Stacy's Happy Shake to make my own variations and they have all been good. Today, I had miner's lettuce with 1 tomatillo, 1/2 a pear, 1/2 a banana and raspberries, vitagreen powder and maca powder. Miner's lettuce is one of the few salad greens that is indigenous to North America. It grows in cold weather and is perfect for a cold frame. I've also been using mizuna in savory shakes with tomato. The greenhouse has both of these nutritious greens for the picking.

Stacy and Jill at Sunny Slope Farm with Jill's first Happy Shake

I have also been making another specialty of Stacy's , Winter Squash Soup. This soup is not raw, but it is heart warming and very nutritious. But the best part is that is is very easy. Yes, easy!! My husband loves this soup and it has no meat. Just cut up the squash skin included but no seeds. Put it in a soup pot with an onion, and cover with water. Cook until tender. Now the fun part, you can throw in broccoli stalks, and other vegetable trimmings. You can throwing in seasonings like a little hot pepper, pumpkin pie spice, or cutting celery. I put in a dried Jimmy Nardello Pepper, parsley, and some cutting celery in this batch. (There is cutting celery in the back garden.) Then put in 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast. You can buy this in bulk at Cronigs, so try a little. I admit I was sceptical, but now I am a believer. Nutritional yeast is a great addition to the diet of vegetarians as it is high in protein and B vitamins. Reliable Market has had winter squash at a great price, including kabocha and buttercup.
The last step in this amazing soup is to blend it with an imersion blender. I love my new toy. It came from Le Roux and was the same price online with no shipping.
So get to the greenhouse, enjoy the sun and warmth and pick up some greens for salads, stirfries, and maybe a smoothie!